


Bonding Moment

by RADifer



Series: JuLance 2019 [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: But it's me, Cuban Lance (Voltron), It's not obvious Klance, JuLance2019, Keith (Voltron) is a Dork, Keith (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Lance (Voltron) is a Dork, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Lance's Birthday Month, Parental Blue Lion (Voltron), Parental Red Lion (Voltron), Subliminal ship, The Blue Lion is a sweetheart, The Red Lion is Done with Blue, light klance, so it's there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-03 02:55:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19454866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RADifer/pseuds/RADifer
Summary: On a recovery mission that Lance and Keith are sent on, they have a bonding moment not just with each other, but with their lions. Lance, who was always concerned about his connection with Blue, discovers it may have been stronger than he thought. He's Blue's paladin.excerpt:“Blue?” he called out. His voice bubbled and echoed beneath the water. His chest strained unforgivingly after the outburst, and he started kicking. Once he breached the surface, he took in a few large gulps of air, cursing himself for forgetting that he couldn’t breathe underwater and that this was real water. At least, he thought it was. It was either that or a very realistic hallucination. Either was probable at this point.Treading water, he spun around to look for some sort of land he could climb on. He couldn’t stay out in the middle of the ocean, doggie paddling for survival. A dusty grey shadow loomed in the distance, and he chose to head for it. Not a few minutes in, something was grabbing him by the foot and pulling him down with a water-filled scream.Then he felt something grab him by the collar of his shirt.He reached his hands back to feel slick fur and scales. He immediately knew it was Blue.





	Bonding Moment

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to try this JuLance thing! I really wanna do something for our baby blue's birthday, and well, I thought this'd be fun. I am a bit behind since I learned of this later last night, so we'll see how it works out.

“Is almost dying the only way you bond with your lion?” Lance asked over the comms. A disgruntled squawk over Red’s line was his response. 

He and Keith were set to do a recovery mission for something called sulonolite on a distant moon over in the Zephloid galaxy. Lance didn’t exactly pay attention to the whole mission description, other than he needs to find shiny rock and bring it back for Pidge to science. The journey there was pretty long, despite the lions’ magic speed, and he was getting pretty bored. Harassing Keith was his only option.

“I don’t- that’s not the only way we bond. She and I do other things,” Keith argued unconvincingly. Lance chuckled under his breath as he heard what sounded like Keith grumbling away from the mic. 

“Like what?” 

There was a pause. The commlink flattened before gently fluttering as Keith sought for his words. “Uh… we… we fly together?” 

Lance was quiet. 

“Was that the wrong answer?” Keith asked as Lance’s silence continued. 

Lance thought for a moment, chewing his bottom lip. Realistically, he knew, there was no right answer to his question. How you bond with someone or something is up to the individual. He knew this. But there was this  _ thing _ egging in the back of his mind, clawing its way to the front with each conversation he had. 

It started back on Arus. He and Hunk would sit around as they waited for orders from Allura or Shiro and just talk. Lance always found a way to steer the conversation to the lions without even trying. Hunk, being Hunk, would oblige to whatever topic Lance wanted to discuss, but it seemed there was a one-sidedness when talking about the lions that Lance couldn’t place. He felt like a child talking to the TV when the program asked him a question and getting that flat disconnect. It wasn’t Hunk’s fault. He just didn’t understand the topic. 

He even asked Allura about it one day after the castle had left the planet. Perhaps his earlier attempts at flirting pushed her away, and that was what caused her response to be short and tart. 

“I have never heard of that sort of phenomena with the lions,” she said, not even looking at him. “Try asking Coran.” 

And so he did. 

Three stories about Coran’s grandpappy later, Lance still was lost. 

“Lance?” Keith’s voice brought him back to reality. Lance blinked, yelling as he swerved his lion to barely dodge an asteroid. He stopped once he caught up to Keith and the Red Lion in a clearing. They arrived at the asteroid belt just outside of the Zephloid galaxy. Sinking down in his seat, Lance pulled up his map to check how much farther they had to go.

“You’re not supposed to hit the asteroids, Lance.” 

“I know that!”

Lance fiddled with his screen, attempting to slow his heartbeat down enough for him to be able to concentrate on flying through the maze of giant space rocks before him. Static droned over the commlink like white noise. It was enough to keep Lance out of his head while he sorted his thoughts for the next leg of their journey. He inwardly scolded himself for even bringing up the topic. 

“Hey, Lance?” Red’s commlink sparked, making Lance jump. 

“What?” he snapped. Immediately, he could  _ feel _ Keith retreat back into himself and take his words with him. Lance knew him well enough to pinpoint the moment he would react and how. Cursing quietly, he shook his head. 

“Sorry man,” his apology gushing out of him like a pent up waterfall, “I just- I don’t know.” 

Static again. Then the red glowing line of the commlink in the bottom right corner of his screen danced again. It was slow at first, and small, but it grew with every word. 

“It’s alright. Listen. If- if you need to, you know, talk or anything about… anything… I’m here for you, you know?” 

Lance smiled. He disposed of a long-held breath he never knew he was holding in the first place. Floating on that breath was a confession he thought he had locked away. The same one he didn’t expect to ever get an answer to. 

“Can I be honest with you?”

“Yeah, man. Sure.” 

Lance swallowed. Nerves butterflied in his stomach. He glanced at the link between him and Keith, it rolling on his screen as if in anticipation, and ripped the bandaid off.

“I used to have dreams before we found the blue lion about this… exotic ocean. Now, I’ve seen the ocean on earth. I lived by it for a good part of my life. I swam and surfed and fished and practically lived in the Caribbean sea. But this one was… weird looking. The fish looked like fish, but they weren’t fish? They were… alien is best I can describe it.” Lance paused to see if Keith was still listening. After a second, Keith seemed to understand what he was doing and gave him a grunt in acknowledgment. He continued, “Well after we found Blue, I remember this moment, just before we had that giant, big epiphany of Voltron, or whatever you call it, where I saw that ocean again. But in it was Blue.

“I was swimming next to her. She wasn’t a robot though. She was an actual cat. She had fur- which was blue!- and scales on her stomach. Her paws were webbed. She was really pretty…  _ Are!  _ You’re still gorgeous, Blue.” Lance grimaced at Keith’s snort of laughter. “ … She talked to me, Keith.” 

Keith’s side of the line went dead for a moment, and Lance almost had a panic attack. He could see Red on his monitor idly floating beside him and Blue, but he couldn’t see Keith. All Lance could think of was Keith rejecting all of what he said. All of what he’d seen. He knew he should’ve kept his mouth shut. 

The line crackled and a loud click racked at Lance’s eardrum. 

“Sorry! So sorry, Lance! My hand slipped, and I must’ve hit a button somewhere or-” Keith’s panicked voice flooded the link.

“I-it’s okay,” he said, pressure building up in his throat. “I just, sorry, I know it’s weird and all. It’s like there’s been this ringing in my head since we left earth, and-” Lance huffed, trying to release the tension in his chest- “I love Blue, but… I feel like she’s always in my head, you know? Like she knows me more than I know myself and it’s- it’s kinda scary.” 

When Keith didn’t respond, Lance went into defense mode and started rambling. “I get it, it’s weird. They’re sentient lions and stuff, but this is just bizarre and doesn’t make any sense. I get it, and I may be overthinking things, or just completely crazy. I don’t know-”

“Lance… Lance!” Keith yelled over the comms. Lance’s mouth snapped shut tight. Once he was sure Lance was quiet, Keith softened, his gravelly voice almost husky in Lance’s ears. “It’s not weird. I- I get it. Red and I… we had a similar connection when I found her on the galra ship. Granted, it was seconds before I could have possibly died, but she said something to me that day. Considering the whole ‘magical lion’ thing, I didn’t tell anyone about it. I thought it was normal. Is it not?”

Something inside Lance warmed and melted away. Fear. That was it. It just melted through the cracks of his heart and was replaced with warm comfort. He never thought he’d be so happy to hear Keith’s voice, especially since he never expected a strong affirmation to come with it.

“According to Allura, no? I thought it would be normal too. Coran told me a few stories about how the lions would interact with their paladins, but not one involved anything like this. What was it Red told you that day?” 

“Um. I don’t wanna talk about it.” 

Well, that confused Lance. “Why?” 

“I just don’t, Lance!” 

“Come on, Keith, tell me!”

“Ugh!” Lance heard Keith hitting his dashboard and quirked an eyebrow. Keith groaned, finally conceding. “She said that she wasn’t going to listen until I finally gave up thinking about ‘the blue one’.” 

“I knew you were after my lion.” 

“I am not after your lion!” 

Lance, satisfied by Keith’s reaction, changed topics quickly, ready to move onto a question that was pestering him. “So, was it just in your head or did she take you somewhere?”

“Huh?”

“Red. Was her question in your head? Or somewhere else?” 

“I-” Keith began. He was cut off by a bang from outside Blue. Lance noticed the scenery in his monitor was spinning. “Lance, I told you not to hit the asteroids.” 

“I didn’t hit them! It hit me!” 

Keith was laughing as Lance struggled to right Blue. Instead of waiting for Keith, he decided to get out of that godforsaken rock concert and weaved Blue through to an exit. He checked his monitor again after making it halfway through the asteroid belt, looking for that bleeping red dot that was supposed to represent Keith. It was following behind him slowly, which he would consider strange, but Keith hadn’t stopped laughing yet. Apparently, Keith could fight and fly, but laughing was a whole different matter. 

“Why do I have a feeling you saw that one coming?” 

“I did!” 

“And you decided not to tell me?” 

“I wanted to see what would happen.” 

Lance resisted the urge to swing Blue around and hit him with her blaster. “You know what Keith-”

“It wasn’t in my head,” Keith said as his laughter stopped almost abruptly. The smile was in his voice still. “She was on a lava planet. There was lots of fire and heat. I was standing on a rock in the middle of a magma river. It was quite terrifying actually.” 

“Geez, Red,” Lance muttered, gripping onto hs controls. He was glad Blue didn’t do that. He felt a rumble come from within Blue’s bodice. 

“I didn’t have too much time to be afraid, though. We were on our way out by that point. She did take me there again not to long ago. I don’t think she realizes humans don’t do well near hot, molten rock.” 

Lance laughed at that. Part of him was only just realizing how alien all this was. How just mere months ago the very thought of any of this, any of Voltron, would seem preposterous. Perspective really kicked in at that moment, and he found himself… not with himself. Keith’s voice over the link kept him grounded. Keith told another story about what it was like in the place Red took him, and Lance listened intently. When he found the opportunity, he commented on whatever strange thing Red did, and they both couldn’t help but laugh. 

“This feels unreal,” Lance said as they carried on. He checked his map to see they were three-quarters of the way to their destination. 

“What does?” Keith asked lightly, now flying beside Lance. 

“D-everything!” Lance flailed his right arm, keeping his left hand on the controls. “I just never thought that this- that I could be in a situation like this. I could be a hero.”

Keith’s voice mumbled over the loud, crackling interference. “What do you mean you never thought that? You go on and on about getting parades from planets every day.” 

“Yeah, but I never really believed it. Wishful thinking. I’m just a cargo pilot.” 

“Don’t s-- that. You make a great paladin. And, in -y opi----n you ---” 

Lance paused. He moved around in his seat, fiddled with the communication switches on the dash, and even removed his helmet to check the condition of his earpiece. The interference was louder now. The ringing in his ears started back up, and he was shoving his helmet on to block out the sound. 

“Blue?” he muttered, looking around the cabin. “What are you-?” He suddenly noticed how bright the room was. He squeezed his eyes shut. 

When he opened them, he was back at the ocean. 

* * *

  
  


“Blue?” he called out. His voice bubbled and echoed beneath the water. His chest strained unforgivingly after the outburst, and he started kicking. Once he breached the surface, he took in a few large gulps of air, cursing himself for forgetting that he couldn’t breathe underwater and that this was  _ real water _ . At least, he thought it was. It was either that or a very realistic hallucination. Either was probable at this point. 

Treading water, he spun around to look for some sort of land he could climb on. He couldn’t stay out in the middle of the ocean, doggie paddling for survival. A dusty grey shadow loomed in the distance, and he chose to head for it. Not a few minutes in, something was grabbing him by the foot and pulling him down with a water-filled scream. 

Then he felt something grab him by the collar of his shirt. 

He reached his hands back to feel slick fur and scales. He immediately knew it was Blue. 

“You’re going to take forever splashing around like that,” she said between her teeth and his collar. Lance grimaced, his cheeks puffed out from holding his breath. 

After a few minutes of travel and a few dips to the surface for air, Blue was tossing Lance on top of a dark, grey rock. He sat up, spitting the dirt out of his mouth, and gave himself a pat down. Clouds of ash dusted the air around him. He coughed into his elbow. He felt Blue’s presence before he heard her. She padded up behind him and shook out her fur, spraying him with ocean water. 

“Look what the cat dragged in.” 

Lance’s head snapped up. His gaze locked on the image of Keith sitting leisurely on another large rock about ten feet from him. A river of lava surrounded it. Next to him, lounging in said lava was a large, shiny red cat with black stripes crossing its back.  _ It-  _ **_she_ ** _ must be Red,  _ Lance concluded. 

“Keith, what are you doing here?!”

“Don’t ask me! Ask your lion! She’s the one who brought us here.” 

Lance looked to Blue, but she was already finished grooming herself and bounding over to the river. He tried not to freak out while watching her bounce along the edge.

“So, what do you think?” She asked, glancing between him and Red. Lance wasn’t sure if she was talking to him or not, but Red seemed to figure it out quickly. 

Red rolled over, stretching out her paws and back before laying back down. “What do I think of what?” 

“My paladin!” Blue snapped. She sat hard on her backside and wrapped her tail around her feet. “Isn’t he just the most adorable thing you’ve ever seen?!”

Lance flushed deeply. He covered his face with his hands, only to peek out and glare at Keith when his mulleted friend started laughing. Keith only grinned at him with an evil twinkle in his eyes that only told Lance that he was not going to live this down. This isn’t what he expected when coming to Blue’s… whatever this place was, and definitely not what he wanted. 

“I suppose,” purred Red, nuzzling her face in her paws, “but is he motivated?”

“Oh definitely!” Blue chirped, emphasizing her sentiment with a flick of her tail. “You’re going to love him! He’s my favorite so far-” 

Keith stopped laughing. He picked himself up off the rock and sent a pointed, confused glance at Blue. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Yeah!” Lance jumped in. “Are we swapping lions or something?” He gasped, whirling around to face Keith. “I KNEW YOU WERE AFTER MY LION!!”

“FOR THE LAST TIME, I AM NOT!!” 

Red rolled her eyes, gesturing to Blue with an outstretched paw. “Now look what you did.”

“Whoopsie,” Blue chuckled. 

Before Lance could come up with an argument for Keith, Red cut them off. “No, we are not trading you out. Blue just likes to play little games. She knows far more than the rest of us, and sometimes she can’t help but blab about it.”

“You mean like spoilers?” Lance shoved his hands in his pockets. He blinked, wondering why his paladin suit suddenly had pockets until he looked down to see himself in his casual clothes. “What?” 

Keith giggled again. Lance picked up a stray pebble and threw it at him. 

Blue sauntered over and rubbed her side up against Lance. Due to her sheer size, he fell over and luckily was caught by Blue as she wrapped herself around him. Her rough tongue licked up the back of his head, giving him a large cowlick. 

“I just want you to be ready, cub. There’s a lot coming your way,” she said, looking up at Red and Keith. Lance saw Keith smiling, having a conversation he couldn’t hear. Blue stretched out on the ground at Lance’s feet. “Your future’s a tempest, but I’m sure you’ll be able to meet its eye.” 

Lance blinked. He was back in Blue’s pilot seat again. According to the monitor, he arrived at his destination. He scanned the screen for the blinking red dot, finding it to be resting beside his blue one. He and Keith made it. 

“Keith?” he hoarsely said over the comms. His cleared his voice, sniffing as the mucus broke up. He really needed water. 

“I’m here,” Keith responded after a second. The sound was clear as day. 

“Good.”


End file.
